Oldskool jungle, or simply jungle, is a genre of electronic music that incorporates influences from other genres, including breakbeat hardcore and reggae/dub/dancehall.[citation needed] It is one of several types of music often simply referred to as "jungle music". The fast tempos (150 to 170 bpm), breakbeats and other heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples and synthesized effects make up the easily recognizable form of jungle. Long pitch-shifted snare rolls are common in oldskool jungle.

The terms "jungle" and "drum and bass" are often used interchangeably, although whether the two genres are actually distinct is an ongoing topic of debate. For those individuals who consider the two genres as separate entities, drum and bass is usually considered to have departed from jungle in the mid to late-1990s.

While the use of the word to describe what is now known as jungle is debatable, the emergence of the term in relation to electronic music circles can be roughly traced to lyrics used in Jamaican toasting (a precursor to modern MCs), during the early 1970s. References to 'jungle', 'junglists', and 'jungle music' can be found throughout the dub, reggae, and dancehall genres from that era up until today.

Interestingly, and possibly just coincidentally, the term "jungle music" was used to describe music by Duke Ellington during the 1920s and 1930s. Using African musical and drumming influences, Duke Ellington's band played a rhythmic, exotic sound advertised as "jungle music" and "the jungle sound", and as a result the band was often named The Jungle Band on flyers.

It has been suggested[by whom?] that the term 'Junglist' was a reference to a person either from a ghetto of Kingston known as 'The Concrete Jungle' or from a different suburb, called 'The Gardens', which was a leafy area colloquially referred to as 'The Jungle'.[citation needed] The first documented use of the term is within a song featuring producer and lyricist Rebel MC, in which a sample was taken from a much older dancehall tune containing the lyrics "Rebel got this chant - "'alla the junglists".[3] At one time,[when?] there was even some confusion and debate as to whether the use of the word "jungle" was a racist reference to its apparently blacker, reggae-influenced sound and fans, as it was the black youth of Britain who fueled the early jungle and drum and bass scenes.

Jungle shares a number of similarities with hip-hop. First, both genres have often been referred to as "black music."[citation needed] When jungle first gained popularity, it received much of the same criticism that hip-hop music first did: It was "too dark" and downbeat, glorified violence and gangs and had a focus on rhythm.[citation needed] Both genres of music are produced using the same types of equipment: samplers, drum machines, microphones and sequencers. Furthermore, both types of music contain the same primary components, including "rhythmic complexity, repetition with subtle variations, the significance of the drum, melodic interest in bass frequencies and breaks in pitch and time."

Some early proponents[who?] preferred to define the "jungle" element as representing the deeper and darker sound of the heavy beats and bass lines, while others saw a connection with tribal drumming, percussion and simplicity.

Producers and DJs of the early 1990s, including MC 5ive '0, Groove Connection and Kingsley Roast place the origin of the word in the scene with pioneers like Moose, Soundman and Johnny Jungle.
Sociocultural context

Jungle emerged as the cultural expression of London's lower class urban youth. The Post-Thatcherite United Kingdom of the early 1990s had left many urbanites, especially young black urbanites, disenfranchised and disillusioned with a seemingly crumbling societal structure. Anxieties over socioeconomic instability were transformed into an uncaring "warrior-stance" as hyped up rhythms and disruptive breakbeats were looped into a sonic flow. Increasing use of breakbeats and hyper-syncopation drew black youths into rave culture, resulting the Jungle genre.

Jungle's rhythm-as-melody style overturned the dominance of melody-over-rhythm in the hierarchy of Western music, adding to its radical nature.
The emergence of the jungle sound
See also: History of drum and bass

In the summer of 1992, a Thursday night club in London called "Rage" was changing format in response to the commercialization of the rave scene (see breakbeat hardcore). Resident DJs Fabio and Grooverider, amongst others, began to take the hardcore sound to a new level. The speed of the music increased from 120bpm to 145bpm, while more ragga and dancehall elements were brought in and techno, disco and house influences were decreased.

Giorgio Moroder's rhythmic simplification in the form of Eurodisco was reversed by the development of Jungle. The safety of the trance-like state produced by Disco and House was replaced with the edginess and danger of disruptive beats.[9] The music became too fast and difficult to be mixed with more traditional rave music,[by whom?] creating a division with the other popular electronic genres. When Hardcore lost the four-on-the-floor beat and created percussive elements solely from "chopped up" breakbeats, people began to use the terms 'jungle', 'junglist' and 'junglism' to describe the music itself. This was reflected in track titles of the era, typically from late 1992 and early 1993.

The club 'Rage' finally shut its doors in 1993, but the new legion of "Junglists" had evolved, changing dancing styles for the faster music, enjoying the off-beat rhythms and with less reliance on the chemical stimulation of the rave era.

One of the most widely used and distinctive breakbeats in the genre of Jungle music is the "Amen break." The snare-and-cymbal sequence first appeared in The Winstons's 1969 single "Amen, Brother," and has since been chopped up, recycled, and remixed into countless drumbeats underlying most of the genre.
Breakbeat science

The maturation of Jungle coincided with an increasing ease of computer-based music production, allowing beats to be chopped, processed, and resequenced into higher and higher levels of complexity. Producers began meticulously building breakbeats from scratch with extreme precision, piecing together individual single shot samples. The percussion took on an eerie chromatic quality through digital effects like time-stretching/compression, pitch shifting, ghosting, and psychedelia style reverse. The resultant poly-rhythms of Jungle's "rhythmic psychedelia" triggered a physical as well as mental disorientation in the listener/dancer. The melodic, textural bass differentiated Jungle from the metronomic, pulsating sound of mainstream dance music. This new "dangerbass" was physically experienced and multi-layered.
Peak

Jungle reached the peak of its popularity between 1994 and 1995, when at this stage the genre was spawning a number of UK Top 40 hits, had a dedicated Lovemobile at technoparades, and spawned a series of CD compilations. It was toward the end of this period that the genre began to be more commonly known as 'drum and bass', as most producers started to incorporate new sounds and rhythms into their music.
Decline

1996 and 1997 saw a less reggae influenced sound and a darker, grittier, and more sinister soundscape. Hip hop and jazz influenced tracks dominated the clubs in this period. Dillinja, Roni Size, Die, Hype, Zinc, Ruck Ruckuss, and Krust were instrumental in the transition of the jungle sound to drum and bass. By the end of 1998, the genre's sound had changed forms significantly from that heard earlier in the decade.
Jungle today

The term "jungle" is often used as a synonym for drum and bass (See Differences between drum and bass and jungle). There is a dissenting viewpoint which asserts that jungle is distinct from drum and bass, despite the progressive changes brought by the interpretations of emerging artists throughout the late 90s, (some examples being Reprazent, Ed Rush, LTJ Bukem, Potential Bad Boy, Digital, Total Science, Goldie and Optical).

There is certainly a thriving underground movement producing and developing tracks in the style of two decades ago and some original (though currently mainstream drum & bass) jungle producers have noticed this new enthusiasm for the original sound. The North American ragga-jungle revival in 2001 saw many new names emerge to carry the torch. Krinjah, RCola, and Chopstick Dubplate pushed things forward with junglized remixes of classic reggae tunes often produced with re-voicing done by the original singers.

In the United Kingdom the jungle scene, though underground, is still thriving with club nights specifically tributed to the Oldskool Jungle sound as well as more modern Drum and Bass and Dubstep. Many notable DJs from the original scene, such as Ray Keith, Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Bay B Kane, Congo Natty, Dillinja, Dom & Roland, Remarc, Kenny Ken, and Doc Scott, Slipmatt still perform internationally, playing Jungle strictly produced between 1993 and 1999.

Shy FX, creator of "Original Nuttah" with UK Apachi, has recently launched the Digital Sound Boy label. Canadian imprint JungleXpeditions features songs with the structure and production values of modern drum & bass mixed with ragga vocals, including reggae and oldskool elements from an international roster of nu-skool producers. Ragga vocals and oldskool elements have consistently emerged present in the works of drum & bass producers and labels, particularly True Playaz and the last three years has seen a resurgence of vocalized productions.

Popular modern drum and bass acts such as Wilkinson, Sub Focus, Chase & Status and Sigma often employ elements of jungle in their music, which is occasionally referred to as 'future jungle'.

There has also been an eastern European, jungle oriented, underground movement with clothing fashions similar to the UK's '90s Rave scene. Most notably countries such as Bulgaria are beginning an oldskool jungle revival.

The group Rudimental, who have reached #1 on the UK Singles Charts on two occasions, use elements of jungle and breakbeat in their music. Example's album Live Life Living, released in 2014, contains elements of jungle and other 90s dance and rave genres.
Subgenres

Subgenres of jungle include:

Darkcore - initially known as Hardcore Jungle from its origins in 1992, this is instrumental jungle with a "dark", minimal focus (1993-1994).
Intelligent jungle - features an ambient sound that focuses on mood, synthesis and production methods (1993–present).
Ragga Jungle - influenced by Jamaican reggae (from 1990 onwards) and often features a MC who recites dancehall-style lyrics